Wild Horses n' Aviators
by CdnJAGScribe
Summary: "Come with me to Texas" – 5 meaningful words lead to a whole lot more.
1. Chapter 1

"Wild Horses n' Aviators"

Author: Haruo Chikamori

E-mail: hhchikamori

Rating: T

Classification: Meg/Animal

Spoilers: Sequel to _Beyond The Call of Duty_

Summary: "Come with me to Texas" – 5 meaningful words lead to a whole lot more.

DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Meg Austin, Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, Bud Roberts, Harriet Sims-Roberts et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.

Author's Note:

_**Chapter One**_

_**The Golden Horseshoe Ranch, Sherman, TX, **_

Lieutenant junior grade Megan Austin looked over at Commander Toshio "Animal" Nakamura as the car she drove drew ever closer to the ranch. Looking over at her slumbering aviator, he was passed out like a shut-off light, she grinned. Now where had that possessive thought come from? "Come with me to Texas" she had said on the dock of the Naval Station San Diego pier. Animal had acquiesced when she had come with him to get his recovering shoulder checked out at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. Animal was rather nervous to go _meet her folks_ as a formal relationship hadn't even been declared. But Meg was pleased to see that Animal was amenable to meeting her mother.

They were both dressed in civilian clothes. Animal had on a blue t-shirt and jeans while Meg was dressed in jeans and a frilly white blouse. Meg was tall, taller than Animal by about 3 inches.

Sherman was home to Meg. Her ancestors had started a ranch many years ago; the Golden Horseshoe was in their family for over six generations. From 1860 before the Civil War between the Yankees and the South, the ranch had been in the business of raising and tending horses. But when the call came out, the army and the navy had profited from many generations of Austins serving their country. Her service was only the latest of many who had come before her.

As she pulled up to the driveway, a pack of barking dogs heralded their arrival and her brother came out to investigate the brou-haha - the noise having awakened the slumbering aviator in the right hand passenger seat and he eased himself up, wincing slightly as the injured shoulder bound making movement difficult.

By this time, Meg had wrapped her arms around her much taller brother while Animal's eyebrows raised questioningly. Meg turned around to motion to Animal to come forward. "Tosh, this is my older brother, Joseph Austin." Since they were out of uniform, they dropped all rank. The skyscraper gave him an assessing look as if to say _who's this eyeing my beloved lil'sister!?_. "Joe, be nice! He's a Medal nominee and a good friend." Animal was wondering if he was going to get a permanent crick in his neck peering up at a man who would be at least 6'5" or more. Joe noticed Animal's glance of curiosity

…and replied. "I'm 6'4" affirming Animal's unspoken question…and grinned. "Welcome to the ranch. You're probably the first one that Meg's brought home to visit." He grinned then winced as Meg gave him a shot to the arm with clenched fist. "So, he's the one that you were mentioning that you did the investigation for?" Joe grinned at his sister ignoring his throbbing arm. Meg didn't _hit like a girl_.

Meg blushed and nodded. "Yep, he's the one." Animal opted to remain silent.

"Joe…who is it?" a female voice came from the main building's front door; and Animal knew that it was Meg's mother when Meg ran to her and embraced her. "Meg?" her mother said. "We were so worried when the Navy department contacted us and said you were in a coma and that you'd been shot. Because of the horses we couldn't drop it all and come up and see you. But we should have…my baby girl."

"It's all right, Mama. I'm fine." Meg reassured her; both her mother's eyes and hers were overflowing with tears.

"Who did you bring home with you?" Meg gestured to Animal who tentatively came forward.

"This is Toshio Nakamura. He's a United States Naval Aviator" Meg introduced Animal to her mother.

"You mean much like Harmon Rabb, that guy that you told me about?" Meg's mother's eyebrows were raised assessing the man who was with her daughter. "The guy you work with?"

"Mama, Tosh is actually an active-duty naval aviator. He was nominated for the Medal of Honor." Meg's mother's eyebrows shot skyward.

"Really?" she asked.

"Really, Mama. He was nominated for the Medal because he saved the lives of the men that he was with when they went on a rescue mission to retrieve an aircrewman who was shot down in enemy territory." Meg continued. Animal was rather embarrassed at this big deal being made of him. "Mama, he took on an entire brigade of North Korean troops armed with only an M4 carbine." Meg said as she wrapped her arm around Animal's.

After the introductions, Animal and their luggage were brought into the house. Another surprise awaited Meg when Uncle Ollie ventured out of the living room. Another hug from Meg's Uncle Ollie and Meg felt like she was welcomed thoroughly home. "I knew you were there even when I was in a coma, Uncle Ollie." Meg murmured softly as she nestled in Ollie's embrace. "I don't know how, but I could sense your presence."

"I know, Meg. I see you brought your commander home." Uncle Ollie looked over at Animal. "Commander, it's good to see you. A fine thing you did for your men."

"Sir." Animal said, extending his own hand to grasp Ollie's proffered hand.

"Tosh, make yourself at home." Meg said, as she guided him to a comfy chair. "You need to rest that shoulder of yours."

"Meg…" Ollie said. "Can we go for a walk?" Animal looked up with a rather lost expression. "Don't worry, Commander, I won't keep Meg for long."

As Ollie walked out of the house with Meg, she and Ollie knew that they had a lot to talk about. When they had gone a distance far enough that their conversation couldn't be heard back at the house, he looked at her. "You love him, don't you? It's different than what you share with Harm. I could sense that. The looks you throw at Tosh when you think he isn't looking. Or the looks that he throws back at you." Ollie grinned at his god-daughter.

"Yes, Tosh is more open. He doesn't have anything to hide." Meg said. "It isn't the same with Harm. With Harm there's always secrets and his Dad. The fact that in Hong Kong, there was an incident with the Chinese where they tried to use the memory of his dad against him. I think Harm's a great guy…"

"…but he's not the one." Ollie finished for her.

Meg nodded, but said. "I mean, Harm's a great friend and all…"

"But you want someone that you can relate to…" Ollie grinned. "…despite the fact that he's a hero." He teased her.

"Well…Uncle Ollie, he's human. He's got his own foibles."

"It's not going to be easy. Meg. His duties take him away from you. As an active duty aviator he's going to be deployed most of the time." Uncle Ollie kicked at clump of dirt which raised a small dust cloud. "Go slow, Meg. See how you two get along first and see how your relationship progresses."

"So how was it for you and Auntie, when you were deployed with the Marines?" Meg asked him.

"We worked at the relationship. Meg. I loved your Auntie and we did our best to keep our relationship going. And we succeeded. If it wasn't for the cancer..." Ollie looked out into the distance. "We had a happy relationship." Meg knew that. Ollie was by her aunt's side at the chemo treatments and at bedside as the disease claimed her life. "You know if Commander Nakamura wants a relationship?" Ollie turned to ask her.

"He does, he admitted as much to me in Yokosuka." Meg said. "And again in San Diego. But he has a career. All I can say is that I want to spend what time I have with him while he figures out what he wants and is assigned in his career." She paused for a moment looking out at the horizon. "Do you think he's right for me?" she asked her uncle.

"Meg, darling, only you know that answer." Ollie turned to head back to the house; pausing as he passed by, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You'll know if he's the right one. Just ask yourself." He took his hand off and rested it against his chest over his heart. "This will tell you, little one."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Golden Horseshoe Ranch, Sherman, TX**_

Meg and Uncle Ollie came walking back in, as Animal breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been getting the _third degree_ from Joe and Meg's mother – the usual _what are your intentions with my daughter_ sort of thing and Animal was starting to feel like a pin-cushion. He reckoned that it would be even more of an uncomfortable situation if Joe Sr. was still alive. Joe Senior would have been cleaning the shotguns on the front porch. Meg felt a rush of sympathy for the poor put-upon naval aviator as she felt a wave of relief emanating from him. "You alright?" she asked as she sat down beside him and nearly giggled as he gave her a 'HELP' expression on his face. She eyeballed her brother. "You were nice, I hope."

"Oh…very." Joe said innocently. Meg didn't believe a word of it and gave him a look as if to threaten dire consequences later. Ollie quite conveniently motioned to Animal to come take a walk with him. It was Meg's turn to look concerned.

Joe made a motion to get up where Ollie shook his head. Joe opted to stay put. Ollie was a family friend for a long time. He knew Joe's father as they had been buddies for a long time in the service. As Animal got up…feeling rather reluctant to do so, but knowing that he had to run the gauntlet. One didn't make a visit to a woman's family without getting the third degree as to what the intentions were. He sighed as he got up, gave Meg a strained smile and walked over to where Ollie was waiting. They both left the house.

Meg kept looking towards the door. "After this…" she muttered, "I'd be surprised if he didn't run." She gave her brother a look as if to say _you're so gonna pay for this._

Joe grinned at his sister. "Meg, I think you need to give him more credit than that. If he's a Medal of Honor nominee, I'm sure he's more than able to go through a grillin'." He didn't have to say _if he's not the right one for you, sis, then he'll run._ "I know he cares for you. We're just makin' sure he really knows what he's getting' into."

"Does he now?" Meg asked wondering if Animal was up to the third degree the Austins usually gave the men who came to court their women.

_**Outside**_

As he had done with Meg, Ollie walked with Animal a ways out into the North Texas grasslands. "Watch your step." Ollie said. "If you hear a rattle, you come to a stop." That didn't reassure Animal any. Prairie rattlesnakes were a common problem around North Texas. When they had gone far enough that their voices wouldn't carry back to the house, Ollie turned around and said. "Commander. You're an honourable man; if you weren't, they wouldn't be considering draping the Medal of Honor around your neck. What you did in Korea is something that was damned heroic. But I'm not here to butter you up."

"No, sir." Animal said.

"I've been a friend of the family for quite a long time; and I'd be doing Joe Sr., Meg's father, a disservice if I didn't do this." Ollie grinned. "I know you're of Japanese-American descent. The Nakamura last name gave it away. Tell me about yourself."

Animal looked out at the darkening sky. It had been late afternoon when Meg and Animal had come to the ranch. He said. "Well, I grew up in Northern New York State, went to middle and high-school there. Enrolled in NROTC at the University of Rochester, class of 1980." He looked over at Ollie who stood there silent in the mounting gloom like a dark statue. "My grandfather was a veteran of the 442/100 Regimental Combat Team and a recipient of the Army Medal of Honor. My family descends from the Tachibana Clan of samurai of the Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan. We served our country, both Japan and the United States; once our family moved to the United States our adopted home. My father and mother as well as my grandmother were interned in Tule Lake."

"So why do you serve." Was the blunt question from Ollie. "It sounds as though your family went through a lot of injustice in your adopted homeland; losing your possessions to the United States Government. If I had been through that, I'd be bitter as hell."

"I serve because in my core I am American, because the country that my grandfather adopted gave him a chance to prove his loyalty, sir. And he seized that opportunity with both hands and made the most of it. When the rest of the country was calling us Japs, Nips and traitors, the US military gave them a chance to prove themselves Americans and we took it." Animal said as he looked over at Ollie. "And we continue to serve, sir, so that it never, ever happens again to anyone else. I love my country, sir. That's why I donned the uniform and have planned to stay in as long as the JCS will have me; as long as the people of the United States will have me serve."

"So you're not bitter?" Ollie asked.

"No, why should I be? Sir." Animal asked him, looking him straight in the face, even though with the dark that he couldn't see the other person's form. "It was war-time, and we all did what we thought we had to do." He paused. "I'd be lyin', sir, if I said that I didn't feel betrayed or hurt by the fact that our country could think us so little as to be traitors to our country, sir. But we showed that we believed in her by signing up and serving. My grandma used to tell me stories, sir, about Nikkei – Japanese Americans standing out in the middle of the internment camp, hand over their hearts, singing the Star Spangled Banner with tears rolling down their cheeks, sir. My grandfather told me that this country was the land of opportunity, sir and I still believe that. Despite the fact that my grandfather was reduced to nothing, he managed to build himself back up in the military. Served his twenty and retired as a MSGT in the United States Army. 3rd Infantry Division when one of his officers in the 442 took him with him when he went to the 3rd. Every promotion he earned was based on merit. My grandfather had the respect of every man that he served with, no matter what race or creed or color."

Ollie had moved closer to him in the dark, and rested his hand on the shoulder of the man who was standing beside him. "You're a good man, Commander. As I said, I would be doing Joe Senior a disservice if I didn't do this for Meg and keep her safe. And I know you'll keep her safe too." Animal looked at the man shaped shadow beside him as the sun had long made its exit from the horizon. "You've already answered the question of what do you plan to do to support Meg, in that you're staying in for as long as they'll have you." He paused for a long moment. "Why the Navy? They didn't give your family the chance, the army did. So why the Navy?"

"Loved aircraft, sir, for as long as I could remember." Animal replied. "And the toughest branch of the all the armed services to fly for is the United States Navy or the US Marines. During the 80s, I wanted to fly off carriers so I chose the Navy."

"Sounds though like you'd be tough enough to serve in the Marines, Commander."

"Then I wouldn't have met Meg though." Animal grinned at him.

"Well, let's head back before we end up not being able to see the rattlers." Ollie pulled out a flashlight and turned it on as the men retraced their footsteps back to the ranch-house. Each step was carefully gauged before they took it and it was about 2 hrs before they made it back to the house. Meg was at the door wondering where Ollie had taken Animal and Ollie gave her a thumbs up to tell her that everything was alright.

Meg looked at Ollie saying "You know there's rattlesnakes around. What do you mean tromping around at night in the fields chatting about God knows what. What if you two had gotten bitten?" she groused at Ollie and reached for Animal's hand as he came up the stairs. "C'mon. Tosh, we gotta find you a room to sleep in tonight." The affectionate glance that she gave him warmed Animal right down from the top of his head to the tips of his toes.

_**JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA Admiral Chegwidden's office. **_

Harm looked over the admiral's desk at the seated Admiral AJ Chegwidden. "Sir, Meg went home for two weeks. I believe you signed off on the leave."

"Yes, but unfortunately, I have a case that requires her attention. Will you head down to Texas and see if you can assist her on the case? You'll be in VOQ at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. The case is involving a Naval chief who went AWOL because of extenuating circumstances. He said that his daughter went missing. And he was trying to help in the search efforts."

"Yes, sir." Harm replied.

"Tell Lieutenant JG Austin that she has been recalled for the duration of the leave and that she will be reimbursed for that time. Get on the next flight out to Fort Worth, ASAP." AJ said.

"Aye, sir."

_**A day later**_

A rather insistent knock on the door caused Meg to mutter an oath that was not repeatable as she and Animal were nestled in the couch enjoying each other's company while watching some TV and relaxing. They planned to go on a horseback ride, now that he was getting used to horses. The first time he had come near a horse he was absolutely terrified.

"_Just don't approach her from the rear. She'll kick." Meg had said. Animal looked warily at the muscular hindquarters of the horse. "Approach her from the front and offer her your hand. She'll smell it and if she likes you…" _

_Animal made certain that he approached the horse from the front. He didn't want to end up with his skull caved in from a kick. Timidly he extended his hand to the horse. The horse gave a sniff of Animal's hand, her ears flicked front as she buried her nose in his hand as she let out a snort. It tickled. Shaking her head she nudged his hand even more. _

_Meg offered Animal a sugar cube to offer the horse who gratefully took it. _

_Meg brushed up against Animal's side and leaned in as Animal wrapped his arm around her waist. "So…able to feed horses now?" she teased. _

"_Yeah. I guess." Animal said. _

Meg's attention came back to the present as she walked over to the door. Standing there in khakis was a familiar sight. "Harm?" she asked. "What's going on?"


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chap 3**_

_**The Golden Horseshoe Ranch, Sherman, TX**_

Harm stood there in front of the open door looking at Meg who was dressed in a blouse and a pair of jean shorts that showed off her long legs. Any shorter and those things would have been Daisy Dukes. Meg was sure that his jaw had slammed to the ground. "What's wrong?" Meg asked as Harm continued to stare at her.

"Uh…um…you look fantastic." Harm said as he stood on her doorstep. "Mind if I come in. The admiral said that there was a case that needed taking care of in Fort Worth and I need my partner with me."

"But…I'm on leave." Meg objected, her tone rather perturbed. Harm watched her reaction, she seemed reluctant to allow him in and that confused the heck out of him. She was normally open and friendly, but this time she seemed rather guarded. She hadn't cracked a smile since opening the door and her gesture was brief and towards the kitchen rather than the living room.

When they had arranged the chairs to the kitchen table, Meg levelled a look at Harm. "So…what was so important that required you coming down and disrupting my leave?" she asked, her tone flat.

"AJ handed me a case." Leaning over and pulling a file from his leather briefcase, he handed it over. "Five days ago, a little girl went missing off the base near their quarters. Her father, a Master Chief Greg Waters, took compassionate leave for three days, expecting that he would be able to find his daughter within that time. When he couldn't he refused to report back for duty. The CO has filed an AWOL case with the base JAG which bumped the file up to us owing to its seriousness. I want to know what happened to the girl." Harm said.

"I thought we were to investigate the Away With-Out Leave. Investigating the girl's disappearance isn't in our mandate." Meg opined as she looked at Harm. "That's NCIS' job."

"There are no marks on the front lawn which would have meant that the girl was abducted without a scuffle." Harm continued; ignoring Meg's attempt to pass the case off to NCIS - his face impassive as he related the information and his thoughts. "…and it had to have been someone that she knew, probably another serviceman who was serving with her dad."

"So what do you want to do?" Meg asked. Harm looked at her. She still wasn't convinced, Harm thought. It had been a while since Meg had seen her parents and from what vibes Harm could pick up she wasn't too happy evidently with him being there disrupting her leave, the time that she was able to spend with her family. Harm was slowly starting to get the idea that he wasn't too welcome over there. His thoughts were confirmed with her next statement. "If I lose the rest of my leave, is it banked so that I can take it later?"

"I want to find that girl…" Harm said. "The admiral said that he'll give you the rest of your leave when it is convenient, but he really needs you for this case."

The look on Meg's face was not happy. "You're damned right, it's not convenient, but since when is the Judge Advocate convenient. Since I'm back on duty…sir." The last 'sir' was almost spat out. "You will have to wait for a while, while I get my uniforms back together so that I can accompany you out to NAS Fort Worth." Harm knew that he was in really hot water with his partner for disrupting her leave.

"Fine, Lieutenant Junior Grade." Harm said as he sat back against the chair. "I can wait."

_**Living Room**_

Animal looked up to see Meg come back into the living room. The look on her face was not that of a very happy camper. In fact it looked as if steam was coming out of her ears. "Meg?" he asked softly, "What's wrong."

Meg looked at him with a devastated countenance. "Everything!" She exclaimed. "I just got called back on duty for an investigation. I've lost the rest of my leave to this. And here I was hoping that I could spend my leave with you." She looked about ready to kick a cushion across the living room. "…and not only that, that irritating partner of mine is sitting in the kitchen with a smug expression on his face."

"I've got my uniforms." Animal grinned. "How about I come with you?"

"But what about the therapy on your shoulder? You need to get that done or your shoulder won't heal." Meg gave him a look of concern. "The rifle rounds that went through your shoulder did a lot of damage. And the muscles keep binding."

"I don't think a few delays are going to matter too much. Besides, three heads are better than one, right?" Animal convinced her. "And then we still get time together." He grinned, leaning in to capture her lips with his.

"Devil." She grinned against his lips.

"I know." He whispered softly as they rested their foreheads against each other's. "You go change, sweetie, I'll change into my khakis."

Meg winked at him. "You sure you can do it with that arm of yours? You're not going to need help?" she volunteered saucily.

"Minx." He laughed as Meg sashayed off to her room to change, but not before she left with a little wiggle of her butt. Animal groaned.

_**Kitchen**_

"Good morning, Commander." Ollie said as he came over to the table with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. "So what brings you to this part of town."

"Just had to pick up my partner due to an investigation." Harm replied.

"Uh-huh?" Ollie grunted. It seemed to be like Ollie was slightly less friendly than he was at Meg's bedside when he was present after Meg got shot. Almost as if he was guarding something. This was Meg Austin's turf and her private sanctuary. And not many people were allowed in. "You understand that Meg's personal time is hers?"

"Yes, sir." Harm said. "I wouldn't be here if the admiral hadn't directed me to get his best investigators out to take care of the case that we're on."

"Really now…" Ollie raised an eyebrow as he levelled a look at the lieutenant commander. "I'm surprised Admiral Chegwidden has so few investigators that he considers competent enough to handle a case, that he would have to pull one from personal leave to get this matter dealt with. Is he that short of competent investigators, that he couldn't have seconded one off another case?"

"It's not my pay-grade to ask him that, sir." Harm replied.

"Meg is happy…for the first time in a long time. Commander Rabb." Ollie replied as he leaned over to look Harm square on. "I trust that you won't do anything to change that, will you?" That was a dire warning if Harm ever heard one and he wondered what he had done to warrant that from _Uncle Ollie_.

"I understand you protect your own, sir." Harm said, his voice dropping several degrees.

Meg returned to the room. "Well, Harm, I'm ready."

Harm said, nodding to Ollie and to Meg. "OK…Lieutenant. We should really be getting going."

"Hold on a minute, Harm." Meg said. "I have someone who'll be tagging along with us."

Harm looked at Meg. "You know civilians can't get on military bases. Ollie may not be a civilian but even he's not allowed to march on base and off base without adequate clearance."

"He may not be allowed, Commander…" Harm's head shot up to hear a familiar voice. "…but I am."

Harm's jaw nearly hit the floor as Animal stood there dressed in US Navy khakis, replete with ribbons and naval aviator wings.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

_**Kitchen**_

Despite Animal's diminutive stature, he was an imposing figure, the silver oak-leaves on the collars of his khakis, the six rows of ribbons and the gleaming gold naval aviator wings above his left breast. And he did not look the slightest bit amused. Harm stared at his former RAG instructor then at Meg then at Ollie then back again. His brain was doing cartwheels trying to figure out what the hell was going on that Animal was here at Meg's home in Sherman. Trying futilely to put two and two together was giving him a mental seizure.

"Meg…" Harm stammered, wanting an explanation, but not getting one as Meg turned stonily silent and asked Animal if he needed help with the bags…that her brother would help get them to the car…the Navy vehicle that Harm had parked in the road leading up to their home. The ranch-house at Sherman had a long driveway, one that extended for about five miles leading up to their home. The property itself was vast, over 1500 acres of grassland and pocket desert complete with tumbleweeds. "I…uh…" Harm continued to stammer while looking at Meg who was standing noticeably close to Animal. "JAG won't cover the cost of accommodation for a third officer…and…uh…" and stopped when he saw the look on Animal's face

"I can pay my way, Lieutenant Commander Rabb." Animal said emphatically as he looked at him with a glare that could melt concrete. "I presume that the longer we stay here the less likely it is that we will be able to pick up clues on the missing girl. So I'd close that mouth of yours, Rabb or the only damned thing you're going to catch is flies." Harm shut his mouth, turned around and headed for the car.

"I'm sorry it was so short of a time I had to come back, Mama…" Meg said as she embraced her mother and moved towards the vehicle. Animal got in the back of the car, shutting the door gently but firmly and Meg got in the front beside her partner. Harm winced as the door was closed with a slam that rocked the vehicle. Harm got the message that his partner was not pleased at all.

_**US Navy Lincoln Grand Marquis**_

As they were driving, Meg noticed out of the corner of her eye, Harm eyeing her when he thought she wasn't looking. Animal sat in the back-seat watching the scenery go past silently. The tension was so thick that one could pull out a knife and cut it. Getting more and more irritated, Meg finally turned to Harm and snapped. "What?!"

Harm commented casually, "I didn't realize you had someone over…" as another few miles rolled up on the odometer.

"…and since when is who I am dating or not…your business?" Meg snapped irritatedly.

"Are you?" Harm asked, his eyes not straying from the road.

"None of your business. When I left the JAG office for leave, that was exactly what I was going for; my personal leave, whether I spend it with someone or who I spend it with, is exactly none of your business." Meg fastened a glare on Harm.

Animal's attention turned from the passing scenery to the argument in the front seat. His eyeballs were going back and forth as the ricocheting commentary got heated. It was like a Wimbledon tennis match.

"Well, I wouldn't be here if the admiral hadn't asked me to come get you for a case. It just so happened that I showed up while you were entertaining your boyfriend here!" Harm shot back. For about two seconds there was dead silence as Meg looked at Harm, the ambient temperature chilling in the car despite the 90 degree heat outside.

"Excuse me?" Meg glared daggers at Harm. "Entertaining? Are you implying something…untoward?"

"Well, it certainly did seem rather scenting of impropriety…" Harm commented casually.

"Oh, that's rich. Harm." Meg exploded. "Yeah, you and Annie, you and the Thai ambassador…and you're accusing me of dragging Commander Nakamura off to a den of iniquity? You know what? Harm? I think you'd better stop right now or I will insist that the admiral pull me off this case…or is it because you're jealous?"

Considering the subject of their heated conversation was in the car silent, Harm said. "Yeah, I think we'd better stop too…and for the record, I'm not jealous." Considering that he brought up the personal subject he let the rank superior officer respect drop as it wouldn't be fair to pull rank in this case.

Neither Animal nor Meg believed that for a single second. Animal wisely opted to keep his mouth shut and let the two junior officers hash it out for themselves. But there was pretty much dead silence for the rest of the trip to Fort Worth. It was a long hour and thirty-six minutes before the main gates of Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth came into sight and the uncomfortable ride was over. Handing over their IDs, the officers were ushered on base.

_**Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX**_

"Sir, Captain Simkovich will see you now." The chief stated to Animal who nodded. Striding over to the base commander's door, he pounded the pine.

"Commander Toshio Nakamura, Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb and Lieutenant J. G. Meg Austin, sir." Animal stated as they stood two paces in front of Captain Simkovich's desk.

Captain Richard Simkovich, United States Navy, Commander Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth at Fort Worth Texas, looked upon the three naval officers and smirked. "So…what's a line officer doing in command of a staff investigation?" taking notice of the fact that Animal had both rank insignia on his khakis. A line officer had no staff insignia on the right collar of their khakis; only two rank insignia.

"Sir, I'm just a tag-along. You'd best direct any questions regarding the investigation to the Lieutenant Commander." Animal grinned at Captain Simkovich - O-5s and O-6s were senior echelon, and were allowed to be a bit more informal. "I'm just an extra set of eyes and ears, sir."

CAPT Simkovich nodded then looked over at Harm giving him an assessing stare, his eyes fastening on Harm's gold wings. "Naval Aviator, huh?"

"Yes, sir." Harm replied, his eyes straight front. "F-14 Tomcats, sir." Meg was wondering if there was a pissing match going on. "but only when they allow me, sir."

"You too?" Captain Simkovich asked Animal,

…who nodded. "F-14A Tomcat, XO, VF-41 squadron, active duty, sir" with no small amount of smugness. Meg rolled her eyes. Now there was a three-way pissing match going on. Captain Simkovich may have held the higher rank of the three of the immature aviators, but he was a freight-hauler being the AC of a C-130H.

"…and you, Lieutenant junior grade?" Captain Simkovich asked wryly.

"Me. I'm just a lowly JAG lieutenant jay-gee, sir." Meg responded. "No fancy wings…I'm just a plain staff officer, Mk. 1 grade, sir." Captain Simkovich's eyes crinkled in amusement as he grinned at Meg's response.

"As you are probably aware, Waters is one of my best maintenance techs on the C-130H. Now I sympathize as a father that he is going through hell right now with his daughter missing. But I also have a unit to run. NCIS is crawling all over this case and I have to toe the line or otherwise I'd be out there helping him." Captain Simkovich sat down in the chair. "And unfortunately that means bringing charges against a good man." He let out a sharp breath. "I don't want to do that, but I have to keep up appearances."

"Sir." Harm replied in acknowledgement of the situation. Commanding officers ran a tightrope of having to be compassionate to the men and women under their command and yet run a tight ship. Sometimes it meant having to choose one or the other. It wasn't an easy decision. And there were underlying political matters behind those decisions too.

"Has Chief Waters been remanded to custody, or is he still AWOL, sir." Meg asked.

"Haven't heard from him from the time he reported that his daughter was missing." Captain Simkovich replied shortly. "I have no idea as to his whereabouts."

All four naval officers looked at each other. This wasn't sounding good at all. "Do you have the address to his quarters? Sir?" Harm asked. The captain wrote an address down on a piece of paper after consulting his computer and handed the paper to Harm. "Let's go search there first and see if there's any clues. Sir, may we requisition arms as well as a Master-At-Arms to accompany us?"

"You may." The Captain stated.

_**Carswell Communities, Fort Worth Texas**_

As the Grand Marquis travelled down the main road and turned onto the road that lead to Chief Waters' home, a rather uneasy feeling came upon Animal who turned to Harm and said. "I don't like this…it doesn't feel good."

When the Grand Marquis came to a halt in front of Chief Waters' house, he got out. Harm knocked on the door. There was no answer. "Master at Arms." Harm stated. "We need access."

The Master-At-Arms got on the radio and requested permission to gain entry. They had no keys, so the only way that they could gain entry was to kick the door in. Animal drew the M9 Beretta that he had been assigned by the Master-At-Arms, nodding to both Harm and Meg who did the same.

The Master-At-Arms gave the door a solid kick, but the door didn't budge. Another kick only yielded the same result. He shrugged his shoulders. Animal told him to move aside. A loud ki-ai accompanied by a karate-style front thrust kick splintered the door by the dead-bolt and a further kick allowed the Master-At-Arms to gain entry followed by the three naval officers who fanned out into the house, their Berettas aimed at the ready. Shouts of "clear, clear" rang out as the officers checked each room. A sudden loud exhalation of breath from Meg caused Animal to run to meet her. Laid out on the floor was a woman and a man both garbed; both several days expired on the floor. The man had a bullethole to his right temple and the woman had several holes in her chest.

"Shit." The Master-At-Arms said. "That's Chief Waters."


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chap 5**_

_**Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Chief Waters' home**_

The NCIS criminal investigation team pored over the home that the three officers had found the bodies. With Chief Waters dead and his wife murdered (it looked like a murder-suicide); the leads as to the whereabouts of his young daughter had evaporated.

Meg was staring off into the horizon, her arms around herself. As she had been the one that had come across the bodies first, it had thrown a nasty shock to her. She had been cornered by the NCIS investigator and questioned; Animal standing protectively beside her, affixing the Navy "Clueless" In Service gumshoe with a frigid glare that he had hoped would have frozen him in place. "That child is missing…and she doesn't know her parents are dead." She whispered, a glint on her cheek caught the setting sun as Animal noticed a tear running down her cheek. "The DNA team didn't find any traces of her other than the usual hairs and skin. Nothing that signified blood or any violence that could have taken her life." Meg said meaning the child. "She may still be alive." She looked over at Animal. "I need that computer." Meg stated, determination coloring her voice. "I can hack through and find out what communications were placed to the Waters and whether we can get some clues from there. HARM!" she called out.

"Yeah, Meg?" Harm came over from talking to the NCIS agent.

"Tell NCIS, I want access to the Waters' computer." Meg ordered. "I don't want to hear any objections. I want to find that girl!"

"Aye, ma'am!" Harm nearly took a step back at Meg's vehement exhortation and amscrayed when he saw the look on her face that read 'WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?'. She turned to Animal and Animal could see the emotion on her face.

"I hope I'm not too late." Meg said, her voice breaking.

_**NAS-JRB Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas; Computer Tech Room**_

The computer was set up in the room and Meg sat down to go after what leads they could find. The first few e-mails, from the time that Chief Waters was first posted to the base, that they found were innocent e-mails with regards to the school that Katie Waters was enrolled in. Katie Waters was a senior with a 4.0 grade point average and enrolled in Naval JROTC in her high-school. Then six months before Katie Waters' disappearance, emails got suddenly darker. The first e-mail that sent up warning signals was from a group called the _Texas Freedom Guard_. After a few e-mails, the picture was becoming disturbingly clear. Then Meg started looking for a name and an ISP trace which disturbingly brought up several names actually serving in NAS-JRB Fort Worth.

Harm looked over at his partner. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" as Animal looked over at both of them.

"Yeah, Harm, it looks like an inside job." Meg replied as she printed off more e-mails. Those e-mails would be evidence against the culprits that instigated the kidnapping and murder.

Harm glowered darkly at the computer screen and said. "I want these guys brought down. This was a murder disguised as a murder-suicide. They wanted us to think that Waters murdered his wife."

"I'm running an ISP trace right now and I'll be sending a warrant to the internet service provider and telling them to provide us with the names of those IP addresses." Meg said. "Commander? Can you come with me to the ISP?" She turned to Animal who nodded. "Harm, you need to stay on base and stick with the MPs, because I'm going to call you and have you arrest whoever we can question to find out more about where Katie went."

"Why don't I go with you?" Harm looked bereft.

"Because…" Meg said with an annoyed look at Harm. "The Commander doesn't have JAG authorization to make an arrest, you on the other hand…do." _ Good God, Harm was acting like a jealous oaf. _ Meg thought to herself. _He's forgetting the legal parameters of what we can or can't do. The only logical person to come with me is Animal as Harm has powers of arrest that are far more binding than what Animal could do since Animal isn't a JAG officer._ "Ah-hah…got it." She pointed to the screen. "TexCom Networks." She said smugly. "That's the ISP. They're on 9500 Camp Bowie W. Blvd." Grabbing Animal's hand as well as the papers that she printed off. "We'll be back." Then realized what she was missing, extending her hand to Harm who curiously looked at her. "Keys!?" she said pointedly as she put both hands on her waist. Harm sighed and gave her the keys which Meg promptly tossed to Animal saying "You're driving. I need to mark off the IP addresses on the e-mails when I get the warrant from NCIS."

_**TexCom Networks, 9500 Camp Bowie W. Blvd, Fort Worth, TX**_

The red-headed secretary of the internet service provider company looked up to see two naval officers enter the building and her eyes widened as the blonde female Navy officer slapped an Navy ID on the counter as well as a signed piece of paper with the words WARRANT emblazoned on it. Her first and only identifiable thought were the words _Oh, shit_.

"Hi," The Texas twang of the blonde naval officer was readily apparent to the woman. "I'm Lieutenant Junior Grade Meg Austin, Judge Advocate General. I want to know the names of the people behind the IP addresses as follows:" She slapped three e-mails down on the counter. "These three IP addresses have been marked off."

"Ma'am. That's confidential information." The secretary tried to backpedal but Meg put a stop to that.

"Miss, I've got a warrant that gives me everything I need with or without your cooperation." Meg said smugly as the Asian-American naval officer beside her smirked. "Now do I get your cooperation or do I have to execute my warrant with law enforcement present?"

"Let me go see my boss." Meg had her hand on her cell-phone to call the police to assist. Animal and Meg had turned their side-arms in before leaving the base as Navy Regs did not permit them to carry off-base.

"Understand that if you so much as do anything other than inform your boss that we would like to see him out here, you will be arrested for interfering with a criminal investigation." Meg said. The secretary bristled but did as notified.

The "boss" was a pimply-faced guy not far out of his teens who was easily intimidated by the official warrant on the table and turned sheet-white when he saw the tough-looking naval officer that was fixing him with a menacing glower, standing beside the female Navy officer. The information was forthcoming and the names and registration information was printed out on sheets of paper which Meg promptly took into her custody.

"I knew you would come in handy." Meg smirked at Animal who grinned back at her as they got back in the Navy vehicle that they had come down to Camp Bowie West Boulevard with.

"Think the guy's having to change his drawers now?" Animal smirked back.

"Probably." Meg replied as she picked up the phone and started dialing, putting it on voice so that both she and Animal could hear; they both heard when Harm picked up.

"Hi, Meg?" Harm's voice was questioning.

"Yes, it's me." Meg replied. "We got the information. I need you to take MPs and arrest the following three individuals for questioning."

"Who are they."

"It's Marine Sergeant Cole Winston. Marine Corporal Kelly Barbour…" Meg paused for a long moment.

"What is it, Meg?"

"And Captain Richard Simkovich."


	6. Chapter 6

_AN: Well, looks like the fic-images are missing again (broken links). And my avatar image has gone AWOL. Oh, well, hope that fixes that matter pretty soon, cause it's pretty boring looking at just plain ol' heads in the img boxes. In any case: the horses that were in the photograph for the fic "Wild Horses n' Aviators" were photographed __by me__ along Templeton Avenue, by YVR at one of the farms dotting the road parallel Runway 31R (the magnetic pole shifted…so Runway 26R is now 31R). Yes, runways are numbered according to their deviation from the magnetic pole. _

* * *

_**Chap 6**_

_**Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Ft. Worth, TX**_

Harm looked at the phone with no small amount of suspicion. It was surprising to think that a senior officer with that much experience and decorated career could be complicit in such a criminal act as a murder but he did not question Meg's assertion that Captain Simkovich could be involved. He knew that he was going to have to talk to the MPs and get their cooperation.

"Warrant Kelly. I need to make an arrest. There have been three names on the list provided and they are as follows: Sergeant Cole Winston, USMC, Corporal Kelly Barbour, USMC…" He paused as the warrant officer looked down at the notebook that Harm was holding then dropped the bombshell. "…and Captain Richard Simkovich, United States Navy."

The warrant nodded. "Yes, sir. I presume we will need warrants, sir."

"Yes, we will." The paperwork took the better part of an hour and by that time, Animal and Meg were back on base and at the Master-At-Arms office getting their side-arms reassigned to them. When the warrants were arranged and signed off on by Harm as the ranking JAG officer on the assignment, the arresting team assembled. Animal was there as a witness to the arrest.

_**Parker County Airport**_

"I just want to go home." The seventeen year-old whimpered. Her arms had been tied up behind her back tightly after her last attempt to escape. A bruise was apparent on her cheek as she had been hit by the guard who had recaptured her in retaliation. To him the girl's escape attempt was a rebellion on her part and he was quick to put a stop to it.

The guard just snickered as he stared over his CAR-15 rifle as he stood menacingly watching the girl in the corner.

"Don't you have daughters of your own?" the captive teen asked. "If you do, would you do this to them?"

"Shut up!" the guard snarled with a vicious look. "You shut that pretty little mouth of yours or I'll make sure you shut it."

The girl retreated into her own little space and tried her best not to cry. She had to hope that she would be rescued. It was her only way of staying sane.

_**Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Ft. Worth, TX**_

"What's the meaning of this?" Captain Simkovich said as he looked at the MPs who along with Harm, Animal and Meg stood in front of his desk. The MPs were armed with M-16A2s, their faces grim, knowing that they had to do a job and arrest a likeable officer.

"Sir, one of the IP addresses that came up was a IP address that came out of this office. I'm afraid, sir, that we are going to have to arrest you for the conspiracy to murder a naval serviceman…"

The shock on the face of CAPT Simkovich as Harm recited CAPT Simkovich's Miranda Rights was jarring as the two MPs shouldered their rifles, one pulling out a set of handcuffs and stepped to either side of him to take one of his arms. The metallic _snick-snick_ of the cuffs going on jolted him back to reality and he said. "I can tell you that I didn't do anything of the sort." As dignified as he could he was marched off to the brig.

Later, Meg said to Harm. "I don't think he did it. I have a sneaking suspicion that there's more to this than we're seeing." She looked over at Animal as he was watching them go through the drawers in CAPT Simkovich's desk looking for anything the slightest bit incriminating. All of a sudden Meg snapped her fingers. "Harm. Tosh, I know how they did it!" At this Animal and Harm turned around to look at her. "IP address spoofing or IP spoofing is the creation of Internet Protocol (IP) packets with a source IP address, with the purpose of concealing the identity of the sender or impersonating another computing system. That's how they did it! They sent an IP packet to Captain Simkovich's computer with the intention of making it look as though Captain Simkovich's computer sent the actual e-mails, but it was whoever that did it through their own terminal. They just hacked the computer and set up a virus program to hack the terminal computer's IP address and substitute it as their own so that the receiving computer meaning Chief Water's computer wouldn't know that it wasn't coming from Captain Simkovich's computer. Pretty damned convenient." Meg looked smug. "I just need to get on that computer and trace the IP packet back to the source computer."

Harm looked at her, then back at Animal with a confused expression and a shrug of his shoulders. "She's smart." He quipped.

"No kidding. I lost her somewhere around Internet _something or the other_." Animal retorted. He shook his head. "I'm having the distinct feeling that I'm a troglodyte."

They turned around to see Meg standing there with eyebrow raised and an impatiently tapping foot.

"Uh…what?" Harm asked.

"Well…for starters. Permission to access the computer would be nice…sir." She gave him a smirk. "Then I can get started on finding out the person that sent the spoofed IP packet."

Harm raised an eyebrow and said. "Well…yes, ma'am!" as he gave her one of his devastating grins. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work. She just ignored him and went over to CAPT Simkovich's desk to go through his computer.

Harm went back to rifling through the file-cabinet to search for more incriminating evidence.

Animal was peeking through a cabinet when a shout of "Bingo!" from Meg caused him to slam the back of his head into the top of the shelf knocking over some things on the shelf eliciting a pungent oath full of four letter words.

"OW…Fuck!" he finished off as Harm tried futilely to stop himself from laughing.

"Are you OK?" Meg asked genuinely concerned.

"I'll live." Animal said and looked up at Meg. "What did you find?"

"It's from a terminal located on this LAN. We need to talk to the guy in charge of maintaining the Local Area Network. One of the Information Systems Technicians can get us that info." Meg stated, as she made a printout from Captain Simkovich's printer and said. "Which one of you is coming with me?"

Animal and Harm looked at each other. "We'll both go." They said simultaneously as they turned to go with Meg down to the IT department of the base.

_**Information Systems Department,**_ _**Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Ft. Worth, TX**_

"So…IT3. What do you have for me?" Meg asked the young, pimply-faced Information Systems Technologist 3rd Class.

"Well…" The IT3 said in a rather reedy Midwest accented voice. "It seems to come from somewhere in maintenance. It's got a computer that's used for ordering parts from the warehouse and is connected like most of the other computers, to the LAN thus would connect to the CO's computer…" he gulped when Animal shot him a look. "…Ma'am. Sirs." He remembered to say.

Meg continued her interrogation of the IT3. "Do you know who was on the computer at the time?"

"Well, Ma'am, I can look it up by the log-in information." The IT3 said.

Meg nodded. "Go ahead, IT3. I can wait." The poor IT3 looked more and more nervous as he plinked the keys to come up with a printout of the login information from the times that corresponded to the e-mails.

"Now match up the log-in information to key personnel on-base." Harm stated.

"Yes, sir."

When the IT3 was finished he handed over a small stack of papers corresponding to the information asked for.

Noting the names, Harm and Meg looked at each other and nodded. It went without saying that Meg would get the warrants and Harm and Meg would execute those warrants with Animal being an unbiased witness.

"Where do we go from here." Animal asked.

"We get the MPs." Harm stated. "Three more people are going down and we need Captain Simkovich released. I don't think he's a part of this."


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: Sure enough. Not two days into the wildlife photography season, I get nailed with a cold! A great big "thank you" to my daughter. I'm sure she caught this at daycare.

* * *

_**Chap 7**_

_**Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Ft. Worth, TX**_

Meg looked at her watch as she nodded. "Let's get Captain Simkovich out. But we'll have to wait until morning to get the bench warrants on the other three individuals. I want to nail them now, but it's late." Animal looked over at her. She looked tired and bedraggled. Animal suspected Harm and himself didn't look much better.

"That probably would be better, but wouldn't it give them time to get the hell out of Dodge?" Animal asked. The more tired they were, the more likely it would be that mistakes would be made and the last thing that was needed on an arrest situation was to be tired. Arrests were by the book and procedure oriented. The slightest mistake on their part could end up tossing the whole case out. And with a young girl at risk, there was no margin for error.

Harm ushered them to the Navy sedan and all three got in to go over to the JRB brig. It was a brief ride to the brig and once parked, the three officers got out. A quick once-over by the Master-At-Arms and they were allowed into the brig. Walking past the cells, the three officers stopped by the one sequestering one Captain Richard Simkovich, USN.

"Our apologies, Captain." Animal spoke. "We had to make sure that you weren't involved."

"Not a problem, Commander." The relief in Captain Simkovich's voice was obvious as he allowed the guard to unlock his cell. "Did you figure out anything?"

"Just that someone remotely hijacked your computer to send the e-mails." Harm replied. "You can thank Lieutenant JG Austin's computer skills for ferreting out the perpetrators involved, sir."

Captain Simkovich nodded and turned to Lieutenant JG Meg Austin. "Thank you, Lieutenant. I owe you one."

"Not a problem, sir." Meg responded, the hint of fatigue evident in her voice as she spoke. "We won't be able to get the other three until tomorrow. Involves procedure and we don't want to give these guys a legal out because we weren't on the ball. Let's let 'em think that they're not being watched." She yawned tiredly. It was almost two in the morning after all the computer work that she had done in Captain Simkovich's office and the only thing that Meg wanted to do was to find a rack and dive headfirst into it. She suspected that it was too late to go to the mess to eat anything and she was too tired to think about going off-base with the guys to find some food. She figured tiredly that she'd get something tomorrow for breakfast. Little did she know that the guys were thinking the same thing.

Out-processing Captain Simkovich from the brig was easiest part of the whole ordeal. A few forms signed and the Master-At-Arms released Captain Simkovich who nodded to the three officers and headed out, another Navy policeman opting to drive him back to his office so that the CO could retrieve his own vehicle.

Signing in at the VOQ, Meg, Animal and Harm headed for their respective quarters. The Bachelor Officer's Quarters were dorm-like. Meg disliked the fact that she was unable to say "goodnight" properly to Animal with a kiss, so she just brushed her hand along his arm before heading for her own quarters. That slight PDA caused Harm's eyebrow to lift which caused Animal to shut Harm down with a stare of his own.

The two officers, Harm and Animal, walked silently towards their own rooms. Just before Animal turned to go into his own room, Harm turned to Animal. "So…"

"What?" Animal asked tiredly.

"Is there something going on between the two of you?"

Animal sighed disgustedly; he really didn't want to get into this discussion this late at night when all he wanted to do was rack out and catch some Zs. "Do we have to discuss this now considering the lateness of the hour?" Animal asked; his displeasure plain. "How about we get this case finished first then we can discuss matters involving a more personal nature?"

Harm knew immediately from the tone in Animal's voice that this wasn't up for discussion and the dismissal apparent in Animal's voice was that of superior to subordinate. Considering Animal was a commander and Harm was ranked below him, objecting to the dismissal was not in his favor.

"Goodnight, Lieutenant Commander." With that, Animal turned to go into his room and shut the door behind him.

"Shit." Harm muttered to himself as he went into his own room. "Way to stuff your foot in your mouth. Harm." He shook his head.

_**Next Morning; Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Ft. Worth, TX**_

Meg woke up, with the sun peeking over the horizon. She was always an early-riser. Feeling grimy, she headed for the shower to freshen up. Even though the showers were communal, they were separated by sex; one communal shower for the men, one communal shower for the women. After washing her hair thoroughly and a quick rinse off, she felt more human.

Breakfast at the mess-hall was bacon, eggs and sausages; sufficient enough to fuel herself for the rest of the morning. Animal and Harm had joined her. Harm looked over at Animal's plate. Sure enough there was at least six sausages on the plate, two eggs and four strips of bacon. "How the he-?" Harm started to say, checked himself and asked. "How did you get that much food?" Animal grinned at him smugly as he set his food down on the table; pointing to his khaki collars where his shiny silver oak leaves resided. Meg smiled wickedly…reached over the table and snuck a sausage off his plate and started eating the sausage demurely. Harm had a double helping of eggs which was the only thing that he could stomach off the breakfast menu considering he was a vegetarian.

Harm looked over at her. "Hey, how come you can swipe food off his plate?"

"Because I can…" she grinned at Harm. "sir."

Animal looked at his plate. "I thought I had six sausages…" looking up confused. "Who swiped my sausage?"

Harm pointed at Meg. "I didn't do it."

"Who, me?" Meg asked innocently.

Animal sighed, and then dumped ketchup over his eggs and sausage; looking up with a smug expression at the disgusted look on Harm's face.

"You know that stuff will kill you one of these days." Harm commented.

"Probably." Animal replied sarcastically. "But at least it tastes good doing it."

"So how are we going to get this done?" Harm asked Meg. "We've got the bench warrants for the three in question. We hit 'em all together or one at a time."

"I think we should bring in the Master-At-Arms and his men on this one." Meg replied as she massaged her own forehead with an index and middle finger. "Each of us can go with each group and we'll bring them all down simultaneously."

"What charges?" Animal interjected. "Conspiracy to kidnapping. Criminal use of Navy Property?"

Rattling off a litany of UCMJ charges which made Animal's head spin, Meg stated. "Articles 81, 82, 97, 108, 117, 118, 121, 127, 128 and 134." The spiel was punctuated by a nod from Harm who agreed with the charges and specifications.

"I'll take your word for it." Animal responded with a quizzical expression as Meg smiled at him. "…since I don't have a UCMJ manual on me right at the very moment."

"She knows her UCMJ inside and out." Harm stated as he looked over at Meg who looked as if she was mentally calculating how this entire bust of the three perps was going to go down.

"OK…so first stop is the Master-At-Arms to collect the bench warrants and the manpower to take these guys down simultaneously?" Animal asked. Meg nodded "Who are we busting?"

"AM3 Terrence Miner, AM2 Kevin Dowd and IT3 Mike Slater." Meg stated.

"May I make a suggestion?" Animal stated. "Hit Slater first. That way he doesn't have a way of getting a message out to the other guys who are on our list."

Harm thought for a moment then spoke up as he looked at both Meg and Animal. "Sounds like a good idea. Slater was the one who jimmied the security codes on Captain Simkovich's computer. I'm sure he's got an alert programmed into his desk station that will send out an e-mail to his cohorts."

"That means we have to get him away from his desk." Meg stated. "Any ideas on the diversion?"

"Get the IT Master Chief to help. He might be able to come up with something." Animal said. "Just have to do it quietly."

"Sir, you take down AM2 Dowd." Meg looked at the information on all three subjects and indicated to Harm.

"Sheesh, Why do I get the big guys?" Harm whined as his eyes took on the shape of saucers looking at the dossier of one Aircraft Maintenance-man Second Class Dowd. "6'5" 315 pounds. How am I supposed to take him down? He's a mountain."

"I'll take him, if you want." Animal chimed in solicitously. Harm looked at Animal up and down – all 5'8" of him incredulously.

"I don't think you got too much height to spare, with all due respect, sir." Harm said to the shorter officer.

"If you're having second thoughts about taking this guy on…" Animal challenged him.

"Not a chance, sir!" Harm growled as Meg snickered.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chap 8**_

_**Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Ft. Worth, TX**_

"Are the two of you finished comparing sizes?" Meg asked mischievously, implying something else not related to height while Animal and Harm looked at her with disbelief that she would imply such a thing.

"OK…I'm taking down Dowd, Commander Nakamura here is taking down Miner and you're taking Slater." Harm said, though not very convincingly. He hated the potential of violence. Harm could hold his own in a brawl. That much was evident, considering some of the fisticuffs that had happened during their cases. However, a cornered felon could turn violent in any case, making his potential take-down a lot more dangerous and Harm was not looking forward to taking on the man-mountain that was AM2 Kevin Dowd.

Animal was 5'8" and 195lbs bench-pressing 300lbs and his physique looked it; one had to – flying fighters was a physically strenuous job. Of course, with the shoulder injury sustained during the rescue, he'd had to restrict his access to the weight room and that was taking a bit of a toll. Harm knew the amount of working out he had had to do to fly high-performance jet fighters regularly. Fighter pilots had to stay in peak physical condition in order to sustain high-g. But simple physics dictated, despite Animal challenging him to take down Dowd, that a person, 195lbs and 5'8", would just bounce off the bigger man. Animal would probably get hurt taking down Dowd and that wouldn't be good for the recovery of his arm. So despite the fact that Harm had put in his conjecture on why he was uneasy taking down the Aircraft Maintenance-man 2nd class, he'd do it. Terrence Miner was only 5'11" 220lbs and Animal knew martial arts, having trained in judo and Shito-Ryu karate; as well as having undergone the MCMAP training and was rated a black-belt in all three disciplines. Animal's blackbelt in MCMAP was a 1st degree (non-instructor level). Mixing all three disciplines enabled Animal to be lethal if necessary in CQC (close-quarters combat). "Well, let's get this show on the road." Harm stated unequivocally.

After disposing of the remnants of their breakfast, the three officers headed for the Master-At-Arms' office on base. Bench warrants in hand, the officers split up, each with a contingent of armed Navy Police.

_**IT3 Mike Slater**_

The erstwhile ET3 was at his terminal when the Master Chief strolled by his work-station. "Hey, IT3, can you come take a look at the computer in my office. There's something funny going on with it. It's not accessing a file and I need it. Commander Sorra will have my ass if I don't get it printed for him."

"OK…I'll take a look at it." ET3 Slater said as he pushed his chair back and walked with the Master Chief to his office. Master Chief Campanelli grinned as he ushered Slater into his office. Slater's jaw dropped open when he saw the Master-At-Arms and a Navy lieutenant JG standing there in Campanelli's office.

"IT3 Mike Slater?" Meg Austin asked. Master Chief Campanelli's happy aw-shucks personality had vanished and he was blocking the exit with a grim look on his face. "You're under arrest for violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice." She paused. "The charges and specifications being…" she listed all of them. "You have the right to remain silent…"

IT3 Mike Slater's world just dropped through his feet and he slumped as the Master-At-Arms moved forward and caught him by the arms; a snick-snick of handcuffs going around his wrists as his arms were bound behind his back.

_**AM2 Kevin Dowd**_

Harm grumbled "Geez. They want me to arrest this giant? Are they kidding me?" as he drove over with the Master-At-Arms to the address listed for AM2 Kevin Dowd. As they thought…he was at the base gym working out.

AM2 Kevin Dowd looked up from bench pressing a 400lb barbell to see himself surrounded by Navy MPs all wearing scowls on their face. Harm stepped forward. "AM2 Kevin Dowd?"

"What is it, sir?" Dowd asked. He was in US Navy muscle tee and as he got up, his muscles rippled. Harm swore that Dowd's biceps were about as big as his head.

"You are under arrest." Harm stated succinctly as he looked over at this mountain of a man eye to eye.

"For what, sir."

"Articles 81, 82, 97, 108, 117, 118, 121, 127, 128 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. You'll be briefed on the specifications of those charges when you report to the brig." Harm stated coldly.

"Aye, sir." AM2 Dowd looked shocked as he got up, turned around, extended his hands back so that the MPs could handcuff him. Harm was surprised that Dowd would come along so willingly after just being arrested.

"I'm surprised." Harm said. "I would have expected…"

"Resistance, sir?" Dowd asked. "And get myself in more trouble than I'm already in?" Dowd raised an eyebrow. "No, sir." Quietly following the MPs to the arresting officer's vehicle, he got in.

_**AM3 Terrence Miner **_

Aircraft Mechanic 3rd Class Terrence Miner was at the base PX when MPs pulled up. Animal got out of the MP vehicle and walked into the store accompanied by the MPs. The Master-At-Arms stated calmly. "AM3 Terrence Miner?"

"Yeah?" his demeanor changed suddenly. "What you want? I wasn't doing nothing. MP. Just buyin' some stuff."

"That's not the charges I'm talking about." The Master-At-Arms stated. "You're under arrest for Article 81 - Conspiracy to a kidnapping, Article 82 – Solicitation to Commit a Crime, Article 97 – Unlawful Detention of a minor…"

"Wait a sec. Are you charging me with those? On what grounds, man." Animal instantly snapped to alert as Miner's stance changed. The MPs noticed this too and their hands started creeping towards their side-arms.

"Article 108 – Wrongful use of Military Property, 117 – Provoking Words and Gestures 118 – Murder in the First Degree…HEY!" The Master-At-Arms yelled as Miner bulldozed him and tried to make a run for it.

"Get the hell out of my way!" Miner growled as Animal stood in front of him. "Or I'm gonna mess you up real good." Animal shook his head and dropped into a MCMAP stance.

"You don't want to do this." Animal stated calmly, his voice cold.

Miner laughed, "Really, man, what you gonna do about it?" He said as he charged forward. Animal took one step to the side, pivoted and drove a foot in a side-kick into Miner's solar plexus knocking the wind out of him. Following up with an elbow strike to the base of the neck with his good arm as Miner slumped forward, Animal grabbed Miner's arm, snapped out. "Cuffs now!" grabbing a pair of cuffs tossed out of mid-air and clapping Miner in irons. "Congratulations, you just added another Article 128 – Assault to your rapidly growing list of transgressions."

"Whatchu talking about? I didn't even get a chance to touch you." Miner complained vociferously as he was hauled rather unceremoniously to the waiting vehicle to take him to the brig.

_**Messhall, Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Ft. Worth, TX**_

"Of course, it's you two that get the easy arrests." Animal complained as he looked over at Harm and Meg. "You sure you two didn't know anything about Miner being a runner?" Meg shrugged her shoulders.

"Nope." Harm said smugly. "I see your blackbelt MCMAP came into good use?"

Animal snorted disgustedly. "Yeah, and the bastard is complaining because I used a side-kick on him that knocked the wind out of his sails." He picked up his glass of soda and drank a mouthful, swallowing. "He bulldozed the Master-At-Arms to the ground and there was only me and another MP between him and the door. So I did what I had to. Sidekick, elbow strike to the back of the neck and wrapped up like a Christmas goose."

"We're not done yet." Harm said. "We have to find the missing girl. She's out there somewhere."

Animal sighed. "Yeah…and that means we have to get these guys to talk. Any ideas?" Animal didn't look hopeful.

Harm didn't look hopeful either.

Meg knew that time was slowly ticking away. They had to get to the core of this group. Somebody had to know something. It was only a matter of time…and time wasn't something the three of them had on their side.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Parker County Airport**_

The hangar was always kept locked – the girl was certain of that because she always heard the key in the door each time as her guards exited. She wasn't sure why they kept her other than the fact that her parents had had run afoul of the militia group. She also knew that they did their best to not talk in front of her. Lately the guards had been agitated which meant more ill-treatment. In order to keep herself sane, she had started giving the guards names in her head to identify them. The mean one with the CAR-15 rifle was Nasty. The one who brought her food was Chef. There were others but they were so rarely seen around the hangar that she couldn't get a read on any of their personalities.

She often wondered why the other tenants of the place that she was kept in hadn't noticed anything strange. She'd often hear aircraft noises of Cessnas and Pipers taking off, landing or taxiing so she knew she was at a small airport. She hadn't heard any jet noises. She was surprised that no-one was curious as to what the contents of this hangar held. The hangar doors were always closed and to those curious, a closed door usually held secrets. But the countless hours passed with nobody other than her guards stopping by. They just fed her just enough to keep her from starving, perhaps a half a sandwich and a glass of water three times a day but not enough to maintain her strength because they knew that if they fed her enough to maintain a healthy diet, she'd bolt.

She often wondered if she would ever get home; she yearned for rescue. But human nature was to _mind their own business_ and thus no one came by. Considering that she was chained to a pipe in the hangar and kept near her cot, there was no way that she could remove the black paper from the window that was blocking the sun coming in. She didn't have any sort of idea of what day it was, whether it had been one week of captivity or two. All she knew was that time was slowly ticking away. Her captors had removed every conceivable method of telling time and the hangar was kept in a state of darkness to increase sensory deprivation.

She didn't know why they were doing this. Of what possible use could she be to them? Did they have some sick perverse pleasure in seeing her chained to the wall? She had seen some of the guards' looks and she knew exactly what they were thinking – could they get away with it? She was a cheerleader at her base high school, so she knew what sort of looks those were. The thoughts of what they could do to her were chilling and she pulled her legs to her chest, huddled down and shivered.

_**Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, Brig**_

Harm glowered at AM3 Miner as he stood in front of the chair that Miner was chained to. "So, you know anything about Katie Waters? Where is she?"

"I don't have to answer." Miner's expression was cocky and he looked like he didn't have a care in the world. "I have no clue where they took that broad to. All I did was get them the military stuff they wanted. Other than that…" he shrugged his shoulders.

"You know you're going down." Harm gave him a look that could freeze water. "It's only a matter of time before we find her…and then I'm going to throw the goddamn book at you." Miner looked unfazed as Harm uttered this threat.

In the other room Animal turned to Meg. "The guy's a sociopath." He uttered. "Doesn't give a damn whether Katie Waters lives or dies." Of all the arrests, only Dowd seemed to be cooperative. A big man, he was more of a gentle giant, who by all accounts had gotten himself in too deep. If Dowd could be coaxed to give up information on the whereabouts of the missing girl, then there could be some quid pro quo and they could try to get his sentence reduced. Right now he was looking at several life terms. Dowd had an alibi that checked out as far as the murder scene was concerned. Animal knew that Meg was thinking along the same lines, when she pursed her lips and looked as though she was concentrating on what Harm was doing in the interrogation. Then she turned to Animal and said.

"I think we need to apply the screws to Dowd and get him to talk; get him to let us know where Katie Waters is." Meg's expression turned hard. "As far as Miner is concerned, I think he's the one that pulled the trigger on the two murders. He's going down for two counts of Article 118 Murder in the First Degree. He'll be lucky if he doesn't get the needle for it."

Animal said. "I know you'll get him. But if he gives you trouble, you want me to water-board him?" Animal gave her an evil grin as Meg rolled her eyes.

"That could get YOU in trouble, y'know. And I don't need that." She smirked.

Meg brushed his arm with her finger tips; then left the room. She came storming into the interrogation room, got in Miner's face and said in a venomous hiss, "We know you were responsible for the Waters murders. Your DNA is all over the damned house. You are going down; give us something to work with to get Katie back or I'll volunteer for the tie-down team when they lethal-inject you at Leavenworth. You got two definite capital convictions considering your fingerprints were all over the house."

Miner turned a cold brown eye at her. "Found the murder weapon? Until you do; everything's circumstantial evidence. Nothin' for me to worry about."

"Well, we've got a search warrant for your house and every neighborhood in between the Waters residence and your place and NCIS investigators are going over it with a fine tooth comb. Still wanna play dumb?" Meg snarled, her blue eyes flashing fire.

Just then, the door to the room behind the mirror opened as Animal looked up. A sandy-blonde haired NCIS agent entered the room. "Hi, Agent Jed Titus. We might have some information that Lieutenant JG Austin and Lieutenant Commander Rabb might be interested in."

"OK…" Animal said. "She's just finishing up her interrogation." Meg wrapped up her third-degree of the suspect and came back into the room followed by Harm.

"Hi." She said looking at the NCIS agent with a measured gaze. "So what do you have for us?"

"Well…we found the murder weapon still containing prints and DNA tying it to the Waters residence. The prints were from the perp in question, the blood spatter on the muzzle was from Chief Waters." Agent Titus stated as he handed the report over to Meg.

"Alright." Meg stated as she looked over the report. "Do you have a copy for my partner?"

"Yep." Agent Titus replied as he handed over another copy to Harm, then looked over at Animal. "Do you require a copy?" he asked the aviator.

"No, I'm just a fly on the wall." Animal said. "No need to waste paper, If I need to read anything, I'll ask them." Meg smirked at Animal at the flippancy of his remarks then her expression turned serious and Animal and Harm knew that she had a major breakthrough of an idea.

"I want a team to conduct a search down I-20 both east and west." She told the NCIS agent. "Find all possible places where Katie Waters could be held incommunicado. Look for warehouses, look for hangars, look for anything that could potentially be a place of captivity. Look primarily for isolated locations. Not anything that is in a neighborhood. She would have been discovered already if she had been held captive in a neighborhood. I think she's being held in a warehouse or something of that sort. Far enough out of the way that she can't be heard, even if she screams."

"You sure about this?" The NCIS agent said.

"Damned right." Meg replied as she handed him her business card with her contact details on it. "Get back to me…with the details of any potential places that we might find that fit that description. You can reach me by cell-phone."

"All right." Agent Titus replied as he turned to go. "Thanks for the hints. We'll do a thorough search."

"Yes, please do." Harm said. "We need to find her before they figure she's of less value alive."

_**Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, Officer's Messhall**_

Animal had picked up something to eat and went to sit down with Harm and Meg. So far having talked to Barbour and Winston hadn't panned out either. Both were mum about revealing any information. Even the threat of capital murder charges hadn't swayed them in the slightest. Harm knew that the two were protecting someone. And Mike Slater hadn't shown the slightest inkling of spilling his guts either. Unfortunately there was no way to force them to talk. So the only thing that they had was Meg's hunch and hopefully it would pay off.

"You said potentially a hangar, right?" Harm asked suddenly getting a look on his face as he finished chewing a mouthful of food.

"Yes." Meg replied wondering if Harm had an idea of his own.

"You know where we can find a map?" Harm asked Animal.

"Yeah…I keep one in my pocket for just these kind of occasions…" Animal replied sarcastically. "We might try the PX. They might have one of the surrounding area."

_**Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, Base PX **_

"THERE!" Harm exclaimed as he jabbed his finger on the map. "Just sixteen point eight miles due west of us. Parker County." Meg was already on the phone. Animal made sure to check that they all had their side-arms.

"Yes, Titus. Meet us there!" Meg said, as Harm flipped two bucks at the startled base PX cashier and they headed for their car at a run.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Parker County Airport**_

It wasn't long before the Navy vehicles swung through the gravel road at the south point of the airport from Addison Drive. Meg got out of the vehicle when they stopped behind a hangar at the south end of the runway. From there they needed to ascertain which hangar Katie was being held in. Pulling out a set of binoculars, she gazed at the other hangars in the distance. They would wait until the men who held Katie captive would make themselves known which hangar they had her in, and then NCIS and JAG would move in to capture them.

Animal was also out of the vehicle with his Beretta in hand, watching carefully as Meg kept watch with the binoculars. Harm scouted around the other side to see if there were any suspicious vehicles. Luck was with them and there weren't any vehicles, but the flip-side was that there wasn't anyone there to indicate which hangar that Katie Waters was being held in.

One NCIS vehicle was behind the house at 311 Addison Drive. The other five were at Russell Road behind dense bush undergrowth.

"See anything?" Harm asked Meg.

"Nothing." Meg replied as she looked through the binoculars. "No movement, nothing to indicate anyone coming or going."

Animal muttered "Shit. We can't see anything from this location."

_**Hangar 15, Parker County Airport**_

"There something going on." Nasty said to Chef, a tone of nervousness in his voice "I feel it in my bones. Something's gonna happen soon." He gestured sharply at Katie Waters. "This lil' bitch needs to be moved from this place, but Holmes isn't going to move her. Says it makes it too complicated. I say it makes it too easy for the feds to track her if she stays here."

"How'd you know that there's somethin' strange goin' on?" Chef asked sarcastically. "You ain't been out since yesterday."

"Like I said. I feel it in my bones and my bones tell me that the feds are sniffin' around here. I step out of this building and the feds will know which hangar we're in." Nasty snarled, "We're stuck in here."

_**483 Russell Road, Parker County**_

Agent Jed Titus called Meg Austin…it took about three rings before she picked up. "Sorry. Had it on vibrate…didn't want to give away our position." Was LT jg Austin's reply the second she picked it up.

"We got a team in place at an estate on Russell Road that borders on the airport, ready to move in as soon as the bad guys make their location known." Titus told her.

"Good." Meg replied. "We don't want the bad guys to kill Katie Waters. We know that they will do that if they're cornered and they think that they don't have a way out."

"So what do you suggest?" Titus asked.

"We hold position right now." Meg replied, she didn't like the idea, but they had to. Unless… "Wait a minute." She cupped her hand over the receiver and said to Animal. "If we were in civilian clothes…and acting like a couple strolling over to the airport grill for a meal. Maybe we could coax someone to look out the window." She grinned. "I need to get my civvie clothes from the trunk of the car, Harm." She told Harm with an evil smirk on her face.

"I don't have any civilian clothes." Harm said looking confused… "I'm too tall to fit into Animal's clothes.

"You're not the one coming with me." Meg replied snidely. Harm looked rather put-out. Meg had no compunction in stripping her uniform off when Harm brought her some civilian clothes from her suit-case to wear "You can quit staring, Harm." She pointed out as she reached out to grab her civilian clothes from Harm while dressed in just panties and bra.

"uh…sorry." Harm stammered as he turned around to look down the airfield.

"Are you getting into your civvies?" Meg pointedly asked Animal

…who looked at Harm, shrugged his shoulders and stripped down to his skivvies. Meg looked Animal up and down appreciatively, giving him a soft wolf-whistle, drawing a rolling of the eyes from Harm. Animal then grabbed a pair of his jeans and a t-shirt, slipping them on; placing his holster on his belt. "Texas…I hear is open-carry." he replied.

Meg leaned in close to Animal, their lips nearly touching, and murmured softly "Yes, you heard right." As she put her holster on the belt of her jeans, and flipped the collar of her white blouse up, tousling her hair so that it was messy looking, then she hooked her arm around Animal's, which earned her another eye-roll from Harm. "Let's go for a walk." She grinned sweetly at Animal.

"Yeah. Sure…why not?" Animal said resignedly. "I feel like getting shot at today."

"Optimist…" Meg teased.

Their stroll down the hangar rows all the while talking about inconsequential things brought no bullets but out of the corner of his eye, Animal saw movement of a curtain. His hand automatically went for his sidearm. Meg was equally fast on the draw. Diving behind the sidewall of the hangar just as a flurry of bullets quartered the air behind them. "Shit… I guess my optimism is really on fire today…" Animal quipped as he checked his Beretta.

"At least we know which hangar she's in." Dialing the phone. She said to Titus. "Move in. It's hangar 15."

"Got it." Titus replied and the men started running across the airfield. But it would take too long and Animal wasn't about to let the bad guys get a chance to kill Katie. Animal took the initiative and went for the door which was now shut. Animal kicked the door in and dove in rolling, coming up with his Beretta aimed at the guy with the CAR-15, firing twice. Catching Nasty across the upper chest with both shots knocking him back across the table. Chef stood up, his hands up in the air. He really didn't want to be in this situation, which was why he had been so kind to Katie when he came over to give her food. Nasty was down on the ground not moving, dead as the bullets from Animal's Beretta had impacted his chest. Animal kept his Beretta on Chef, as he moved over to get Katie into his zone of safety.

"You are certifiably insane." Meg said, as she came up behind him, her weapon on Chef. "The other one is dead." She stated, though Animal already knew that. "Two shots center mass, right through the heart." She looked at Chef as the NCIS team headed in. Harm was right behind them. Meg leaned into Animal, giving him a passionate kiss "Don't ever do that again! You scared the shit out of me." She chewed him out for the scare he had given her. Harm looked at her like she had grown two heads. He just shook his head and settled for interrogating Chef.

Animal settled for giving her a cocky grin. "Well…Katie's OK. I think." Looking over at Katie, Meg saw that the poor girl was hyperventilating with the shock of the sudden gunfire. Wrapping her arms around Katie, Meg led her out to the waiting vehicle. The gauntlet of NCIS vehicles was preventing any of the militia involved in kidnapping Katie Waters from getting anywhere near the scene.

Finally, the scene was cleared and they were headed back to the base, with Katie safe in their custody. What would happen to her since she was orphaned would be up to the base commander.

The next job would be to make Chef talk and get him to give up the members of his militia involved in this kidnapping and murder. And NCIS would do that. JAG's role in this investigation was finished.

_**Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, CO's Office **_

Captain Simkovich looked over at the three officers. "Katie will be adopted by a military family. We will make sure of it, but it won't be at a base near here. I need you three to take her back to Washington DC and use the Navy system to find her a family that will be able to take care of her until she's of the age of majority. There's too many things happening in this area for this to be a place of safety for Katie."

"Yes, sir." Lieutenant Commander Rabb replied. "We'll make sure the Navy deals with this matter promptly."

"NCIS is looking after getting the rest of the militia involved in this?"

"Yes, sir. They're arresting the group as we speak. However a lot of them won't come in alive. They'll probably shoot it out with NCIS." It wasn't going to be a pretty situation, but the militia tended to be anarchist in nature, violently against the government and Harm knew that any organization that was anti-government such as this militia would rather die first than be taken into custody. Another black-eye against the government and more fodder for more militias to use for recruiting purposes to gather anyone with a grudge against authority.

"Thank you, Commander Rabb. Lieutenant JG Austin." And then he nodded at Animal. "Commander Nakamura." The finality of the acknowledgement let the three officers know that they were being dismissed and Animal led the three of the officers out.

"Well…that was all fun and games…" Animal said wryly

"You can say that again." Harm muttered. "Hope we never have to do that again anytime soon."


End file.
